The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a bonding tool, a system to apply pressure during a bonding process and a method to apply pressure during a bonding process.
When a part requires bonding of an element (such as a liner), a bonding tool is used to bond the element to the part using pressure. Current bonding tools that apply pressure to bonding liners rely upon springs, clamps and rubberized elements that cannot evenly apply pressure to each bonding liner. In more complicated systems, vacuum bags are employed. Typically, such systems include a bag element that is laid on a part and a sealed vacuum connector coupled to the bag element. The vacuum connector is engaged and draws a full vacuum out of the bag element. This causes the bag element to impinge upon any liners interposed between the bag element and the part such that the liners are pressed onto the part.
An issue with the vacuum bag systems exists, however, in that under most normal circumstances, the amount of pressure that can be generated is limited to 1 atmosphere or about 14.7 psi. This issue is compounded when bonding processes require an application of heat that affects an amount of pressure in a system.